Hi, I''m conducting an initial feasibility study for a new production company based in British Columbia, Canada. Our main focus will be on publishing games created by indie developers, either teams or individuals, and we hope to see what kind of interest there is out there for this concept before we move ahead with the idea. We feel that there are huge numbers of innovative games or game ideas out there that deserve to be professionally developed and presented to the public. With some dedicated development teams, and an aggressive marketing strategy, we hope to release great games and make lots of money for all parties involved. Profits will initially be split based on a percentile amount; 50%-50%, 40%-80%, 80%-40%, or otherwise. We haven''t yet decided what kind of scheme to use. As sales and interest increase, we will be able to provide more and more funding to promising teams or individuals, allowing them to develop games full time. This company is still in it''s infancy and there are quite a few issues we need clarification on before we can start up shop, so, to start, here are a couple of questions we would like to have some response on. 1. Would you be at all interested in signing a contract to have your game professionally tested, packaged, and marketed? 2. Under what conditions would you be willing to sign on with us? Feel free to post or email any other questions, comments, concerns, ideas, etc. that anyone may have. I would love to hear any and all feedback. Ryan

My opinions:

I don''t think you''ll find a shortage of people who want their game professionally tested, packaged and marketed. You will have a problem of the slush pile - lots of low quality crud unfit to publish. Dexterity recently got swamped when they opened their doors for submissions.

So having a reasonable plan for handling submissions is necessary.


Things that would encourage me to contact your company:

Knowing up front what your standard profit split is. Take the minimum that makes you happy and call that standard. That way if I do contact you and we agree on something better than ''standard'', I''m even happier.

I''d need to have confidence in your marketing plans. How would you go about promoting a game? Is there anything that would make your marketing efforts noteworthy that I couldn''t do on my own?

Sad to say, but I''d strongly prefer it if your company had a track record and had been around for a few years. Something that makes me believe you''ll be around for the lifetime of any game I might produce.

Clear language about when the checks come.

I''d like to know what sorts of games (type, quality, price range) that you intend to offer. If I create a cheapo puzzle game and everything else you sell is a full-priced RPG, it wouldn''t be a good match. If you have a particular area of the market that you are looking at, it would be nice to know. If you''re interested in any game type, that would be nice to know as well.

More detailed info, required for contract:
I''d like to know what the standard plans are for customer support. What else will you provide? Forums? Bandwidth for downloading demos and patches? Web pages?

Since you would be new to the publishing business, ideally I''d like to know what your business plan looks like. I want to have some confidence in your people and your firm.

Exclusive or non-exclusive deals? Some standard exit clause(s).
I''m sure I''ll think of more, but that''s a start...

JSwing

Hmm I think I''d like to see the sales figures of similar games that you''ve published, and your distribution area.

I agree with pretty much everything the AP said. Interestingly enough, they appear to be a Java developer too. Would you handle games written in Java?

"40%-80%, 80%-40%"

He can also get you an additional 20% from some where.

John

I think JSwing posted a pretty good list. I will just add that a clear list of any deductions would be good. By that I mean what exactly the developer gets a percentage of. Is it the wholesale price or are deductions made for packaging, marketing or other items before the developers % is calculated.

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions

Professionally tested: sounds like a great idea, but I''m not willing to pay for it. At most, I would split it with a publisher, but there''s too much potential for abuse if a developer is paying the entire bill...what keeps the publisher from putting the developer through never-ending cycles of testing? Sounds absurd, but in the book-publishing business, this scam is well known to occur whenever a publisher charges for editing.

Packaged: Excellent idea. This is the sort of thing I expect from a publisher. In addition, what about warehousing and distribution services?

Marketing: This would have to be clarified, but again, that would be something I want from a publisher.

Conditions for signing:
- a clear, non-abusive, fair contract.
- a reasonable split of the profits after reasonable expenses, all of which is clearly spelled out before.
- a sense of enthusiam on the publisher''s part. I want to feel like they think my game is great, that it''s going to make them lots of money, and they''re going to really bust their asses to promote it. Remember, I only make money if they sell it...they can still make money off me.

If I feel like I''m just another game to fill space on a crap CD, I''m not going to waste any time on the deal...I''d rather work on improving my game, or on finding a publisher who''s interested in it.

I''d need to know the territories and channels in which you plan to distribute my game. I''d need to know your predictions for unit sales. I''d need to know the names of some successful releases you''ve been involved with.